It was a foggy afternoon
by cedarrapidsgirl78
Summary: Trip's new pet project is a holodeck. This is Hoshi's first time in it.


**Title: **It was a foggy afternoon  
**Author: **cedarrapidsgirl78  
**Series/Pairing:** Star Trek _Enterprise_, Malcolm/Hoshi (kinda)  
**Rating:** G  
**Warnings: **none  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of them. More's the pity.

**This was written for the LJ comm s****tarfleet_hq**** weekly challenge ****here****, to put your favorite character on the Holodeck. Well, **_**Enterprise**_** doesn't ****have**** a holodeck, but I built one anyway. Or, really, Trip and Malcolm did, I'm just taking the credit. Since this is fiction, you can totally ignore that Starfleet won't have holodeck technology themselves for another 200 years, right? Right. Some of the references here are from the **_**Enterprise**_** episode 1x5, "****Unexpected****". I know NOTHING about San Francisco, either, so my deepest, humblest apologies to anyone who knows the town better than I. I say, it's the holodeck, and a fantasy, so..artistic license, by me and Trip, who programmed the darn thing. And I'm a teensy over the word limit, please don't shoot! My first ENT and Malcolm/Hoshi fic, and it's fluffy schmoop. I also cannot spell "Francisco" today to save my life. *runs and hides* **

It was the end of Alpha shift on Enterprise, and Hoshi Sato was glad to see it end. It wasn't overly busy, really, just steady, with messages, translations, and other communications on the ship. Today was a day that she'd been secretly looking forward to for a while. It was finally her turn on the new holodeck.

Trip's pride and joy, she thought to herself while she made her way in the lift down to the Engineering Deck. A couple months earlier, Trip had found himself about a Xyrillian ship, and they had a new experience. A room, where images could be-well, it was hard to explain, really,-kind of projected all around you, and it was like you were actually there and could interact with everything. Despite the fact that Trip had would up with a little more than he bargained for from the experience-which no one really brought up around Trip, unless you wanted to scrub plasma conduits-he still raved about his experiences in that room.

So Trip was over the moon, so to speak, with excitement when he received word from Ah'len, the Xyrillian he had met on the her ship. As a token of appreciation for helping them recently, the Xyrillians were willing to share their technology and information on the "holo-chamber" Trip had been in.

After some cajoling of Captain Archer, and with some help from Hoshi on translations, Trip recruited Malcolm to help him during their off hours, and slowly the holodeck began to take shape. It was Trip's secret project, and no one was allowed in until it was done. When Trip finally gathered the main bridge crew in the little area, and activated the controls, it really was hard to believe that they weren't on the streets of San Francisco.

It had quickly become a popular destination, and of course, with Hoshi being an Ensign, she wasn't high on the priority list to try it out. She had been rather busy lately, so it's not like she really could have taken much time off to relax anyway. But Captain Archer had insisted just the other day that Hoshi shouldn't work so hard, and take some time for herself, that she was looking tired. He seemed satisfied when she told him of the upcoming appointment.

Hoshi arrived at the door of the holodeck. Upon entering, she put in her code for the program Trip had made for her. The computer beeped, and slowly the background began to fade and change. Hoshi frowned a bit when she realized the surroundings as a street in San Francisco She was confused. Maybe Trip had activated the wrong program for her. She went over to the wall, pressed a few buttons, and soon got the response she was looking for. "Holoprogram 41-A, Ensign Hoshi Sato, authorization by Commander Charles Tucker." the computer screen showed. No, this was her program, she thought. Trip really didn't seem that interested when he was taking suggestions for everyone's programs, just that "he had an idea for a program that she was really going to like." Still somewhat skeptical, she pushed some more buttons that would resume the program.

A tone, and the town came back to life. Hoshi wasn't really sure what to do, until a PADD she didn't even realize she was carrying beeped. A message read, "Go to the end of the street and turn left. Sit on the bench closest to the fountain, you will find more instructions." Hoshi was confused, but intrigued, and carefully made her way down to the fountain and bench as instructed. The PADD beeped another message. "Go six blocks, take a trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. More details to follow there." Once again, Hoshi was confused. What was this? This really wasn't what she had in mind, and while San Francisco was a nice place, there surely were other places Trip could have set up for her. Still, maybe a good mystery would take her mind off of all the crazy translations and requests she'd been putting up with for the last week. Why not? For the next 45 minutes Hoshi was taken on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco, down to the bridge, back to Starfleet Academy, and down Lombard Street. All places she had been to before, but not lately, or in such a hurried fashion. Finally Hoshi found herself in front of the Japanese Tea Garden. It was a place she frequented during her academy years, a little piece of home in a bustling city. A beep signaled a new message. It was short and sweet. "Go inside and look around." Hoshi did as she was instructed. Of of the corner of her eye she saw a hint of a familiar color of a blue uniform. She turned and was surprised to find Malcolm Reed leaning up against a wall, like he had all the time in the world. He smiled at her, arms crossed over his chest, just waiting. "You looking for something, love?"

Hoshi smiled back, walked toward him, and stopped just in front of him. Malcolm was still happy, smiling, leaning, waiting. "No, not really. I think I found what I was looking for." She held out her hand, and just after Malcolm took it and they were about to go into the Tea Garden, the room paused. Hoshi sighed and reluctantly went to the console on the wall. "Allotted holodeck time has expired. Save program in progress for future use?" Hoshi pressed "yes" and the San Francisco skyline and Malcolm faded back to the four gray walls of the holodeck. The Ensign stood there for a minute, disoriented, after the sudden shock back to reality. More beeps signaled that the door was opening, and the real Malcolm Reed came into the room.

"Evening, Ensign," he said, going over to the computer to start his own program. He turned when he realized Hoshi hadn't responded, and was still staring at him from the middle of the room. "Ensign. Hoshi. Are you alright?"

Hoshi was having a little trouble with the sensory overload that seemed to be happening at the abrupt end of a holodeck experience, especially with having the "holo Malcolm" just _right there_, to be replaced by "Real Malcolm" a few minutes later. She shook her head to clear it. "Uh, yeah, Lieutenant, I'm fine. Just..it was my first experience with this." She smiled and waved to indicate the room.

"I totally understand, Ensign. My first time stopping in the holodeck I almost got motion sickness from it. Of course, it probably didn't help that Commander Tucker was still working out some of the bugs, and I got to be his loyal test subject. About 25 times." He smiled at her reassuringly. "It gets better, it just takes some getting used to. Did you have fun, besides the sudden stop at the end?"

Hoshi relaxed a bit now, the San Francisco life fading and the Enterprise one coming back. "Yes, I did. I hope to be able to continue it sometime." She walked over to the wall where Malcolm was still looking at the screen. "If I may ask, what adventure are you going to go on, Mr. holodeck experienced?"

Malcolm looked at the screen intently for a few seconds, then made a selection. "I believe I am going to be a treasure hunter in the ruins of ancient Egypt. One of Trip's newest pet projects." He pushed another button and went to the middle of the room. He turned, smiled and held out his hand. "Do you want to join me, love?"

Hoshi grinned broadly, and took Malcolm's hand in hers. "I believe I've already found what I'm looking for, but yes, I'll join you." Another beep, and the two were off on an adventure, together.


End file.
